Monday, 26 July 2010

My final day in Boston for this trip is spent hanging out with Gary Waleik, former guitarist with my all-time favourite band The Big Dipper, before getting ready for a last-night gig double-header.

Back to Ed’s; hang out with Dave and Toirm and sort some packing out before Ed gets home at 7. We hit the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, a very grandiose establishment in the Back Bay area. A film called “Payoff” about Boston rock women filmed by Kaylyn Thornal, a friend of Ed, is being shown. The film deals with the specific issues and prejudices rock women face, through the experiences of Boston women, particularly Jen Trynin and Laurie Geltman. For me, some of the featured women (Merrie Amsterburg, Jules Verdone and Letters To Cleo’s Kay Hanley, who is funny and rude) come across very well. Others, particularly Laurie (who is Kaylyn’s girlfriend and the main focus of the film) fare less well, seeming to my uneducated eyes to fall back onto the sexism line of argument when they hit a setback in their careers. I dunno, the film was thought provoking and I acknowledge there is a lot of sexist bullshit that rock women have to climb through, but it strikes me that male bands have similar shitty experiences. Just consider the extreme indifference faced by the Dipper in their latter stages, and the 5 years of record company wrangles that nearly tore apart the Gigolo Aunts, for example.

Please ignore the above; I don’t know what I’m talking about because I’ve never been there. These are just the rambling views of an outsider. Anyway, Laurie plays a short set afterwards, an understated set with a folky/ blues feel, which fails to impress and is only notable due to the presence of ex latter-day Big Dipper (and Del Fuego and Embarrassment!!) drummer Woody Geissman in her band. Jules Verdone, however, rocks. Her subsequent set is moving and heartfelt in parts, and in your face in others. Jules is also really striking and very attractive, and I find I feel very self-conscious when Ed introduces me to her. I hope I don’t come across like a complete dick when I mention to her that I hope this is her last “live” performance for just a short while, and not forever.

A brief chat with Woody Geissman and farewell hugs with James Horrigan before EdV and I head off to the Lizard Lounge, for gig number 2 of the night!